The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-10-20

y
walking right on to meet the dagger that
was TO take his life. This infatuation of
strong drink is so mighty in many a man
that though his fortunes are crashing,
and his health is crashing, and his domcs-
tic interests are crashing, and we hand
him a long scroll containing the names Of
perils that await him, he goes straight on
to physical, and mental, and moral as
In proportion as any style of
alcoholism is pleasant to your taste, and
to your nerves, and for time
delightful to all your physical and mental
constitution, is the peril awful. Remem-
ber JON than and the forbidden honey in
the woods of Beth-aven.
Furthermore, the gamester S indulgence
must be put in the list of temptations de-
licious but destructive. 1 have crossed
the ocean eight times, and always one of
the best rooms has, from morning till late
at night, been given up to gambling prac-
tees. | heard of many men who went
on board with enough money for Euro
ropean excursion who landed without
enough money to get their baggage up to
the hotel or railroad station. To many
there is a complete fascination in games
of hazard or the risking of money on
possibilities. 1t seems as natural for them
to bet as to eat. Indeed the hunger for
food is often Overpowered with the hunger
for wagers, as in the case of Lord Sand
wich, persistent gambler, who not being
willing to leave the dice table long enough
for the taking of food, invented prepara-
ton of food that he could take without
stopping the game; namely, slice of beef
between two slices of bread, which was
named after Lord Sandwich. 1t is absurd
for those of us who have never felt
the fascination of the wager to speak
slightingly of the temptation. 1t has
slain a multitude of intellectual and
moral giants, men and women stronger
than you or I. Down under its power
went glorious Oliver Goldsmith, and Glib
bon, the historian, and Charles Fox. the
statesman, and in olden times famous
senators of the United States, who used
to be as regularly at the gambling house
all night as they were in the halls of
legislation by day. Oh, the tragedies of
the faro table! know persons who be-
gan with slight stake in ladies par
lor and ended with the suicides pistol at
Monte Carlo. They played with the
square pieces Of bone with black marks
on them, not knowing that Satan was
playing for their bones at the same time
and was sure to sweep all the stakes off
on his side of the table. The last New
York legislature sanctioned the mighty
evil last spring by passing law for its
defense at the race tracks, and many
young men in these cities lost all their
wages at Coney Island this summer, and
this fall are borrowing from the money
tills of their employers or arranging by
means of false entry to adjust their de-
moralized finances. Every man who
voted for the Ives pool bill has on his
hands and forehead the blood of these
souls.
But in this connection some young con-
verts say to me: ''Is it right to play
cards? Is there any harm in a game of
whist OF !euchre?" Well, l know good
men who play whist and euchre and
other styles of games without any wagers.
l had friend who played cards with his
wife and children, and then at the close
said: "Come, now, let us have prayers. y
/ will not judge other mems consciences,
but tell you that cards are, in my mind,
SO associated with the temporal and eter-
nal damnation of splendid young men
that | should no sooner say to my
family: "Come, let us have game OF
cards, " than would go into menagerie
and say: ''Come, let us have a game OF
! rattlesnakes, - or into a cemetery, and
sitting down by marble slab, say to the
gravediggerS: "Come, let us have game
of skulls. Conscientious young ladies
are silently saying to me while / speak
''Do you think card playing will do US
any harm?" Perhaps not, but how viii
you feel if in the great day Of eternity
when we are asked to give an account Of
our influence, some man shall say to you
Il was introduced to games Of chance II
the year 1887, in Brooklyn, at youi
house, and ! went on from that sport tx
something more exciting, and went OF
down until l lost my business and los
my morals and lost my soul, and these
chains that you see on my wrists and fee
are the chains of a gamester's s doom, anC
l am on my way to a gambler hell. >
Honey at the start, eternal catastrope a
the last.
Stock gambling comes into the same
catalogue. 1t must be very exhilarating
to go into Wall street, New York, o.
State street, Boston, or Third street
Philadelphia, and depositing small sun
of money run the risk of taking out
fortune. Many men are doing an homes
and safe business in the stock market
and you are an ignoramus if you do no
know that it is just as legitimate to dea
in stocks as to deal in coffee, or sugar, q
flour. But nearly all the outsiders VIII,
go there on a little financial excursion
lose all. The old spiders eat up the un
suspecting flies. l had friend who pu
his hand on his hip pocket and said t.
me in substance: II have there th
value of $150,000" His home is toda,
penniless. What was the matter? Wal
street. Of the vast msjority who ar
victimized you hear not one word. On
great stock firm goes down, and whole
columns of newspapers discuss thei
fraud, or their disaster, and we are pre-
sented with their features and their bi
ography. But where one such famou
firm sinks 500 unknown men sink wit
them. The great steamer goes down an
all the little boats are swallowed in til
same engulfment. Gambling is gamblin
whether in stocks or breadstuffs, or die
or race track betting. Exhilaration g
the start and raving brain, and shat
tered nervous system, and a sacrifice
property, and destroyed soul at til
last. Young man, buy no lottery ticl
cts, purchase no prizs packages, bet o
, no baseball games Or yacht racing, hay
no faith in luck, answer no mysterior
circulars proposing great income fC
small investment, shoe away the bu'
yards that no, Ter around our hotels tryin
! to entrap strangers. Go out and NAL
an honest living. Have God on Vol
:, side and be candidate for heaven. R
z member all the paths of sin are banke
: with flowers at the start, and there al
!; plenty of helpful hands to fetch the gs
charger to your door and hold the stirrr
;. while you mount. But further on Il
=. horse plunges to the bit in slough inc
I tricable. The best honey is not like tn
. which Jonathan took on the end Of Il
rod and brought to his lip, but that whi'
7Ip y~x n T1 22S